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Bachmann HO scale two-truck Climax
I’d be interested in knowing whether the problems with their three truck climax of a few years ago has been corrected. Like a number of people, I found that locomotive to be a beautiful model that performed well until one day it stopped moving. The only support Bachmann provided, once they had run out of replacements, was to offer to give you any other Spectrum locomotive as long as you paid the $45 handling and shipping fee. Then the model went off the market.
If it turns out to be an improved mechanism that won’t break down, will the sound board from the old one work?
Ed Merrin
I read your 2006 article about the 2-truck climax and was very enthused with the news. I bought one at a train show. ran it with no trin cars on level track for all of 1 minute when it stalled. the loco had cracked gears similar to that of their shay, On3 climax. No repair parts. I had to wait until Northwest Shortline came uo with new gears (thank you NWS for support)
MR didn’t do a follow up on the poor mechanism and part failure in the HO climax. I had a very expensive paper weight til I got the NWS gears.
So is this another Bachmann engine prone to drive or ?? failure? Way over priced for another paper weight. why not do a real test to see if holds up. What Bachmann done to improve the mechanism.
So far, none of the Bachmann steam locomotives have been equipped with a Tsunami decoder. The BAchmann locomotives are equipped with Sound-Traxx decoders, but they are NOT Tsunami decoders. A quick exposure to Decoder Pro details the Backmann Sound-Value decoder…
The new version of the Climax has indeed been improved - the high risk gears have been replaced with metal gears. Bachmann has truck assemblies with the new gears available for sale in their parts department. In regard to the sound decoders that Bachmann uses in their steam locos the Spectrum " DCC Sound on Board" locos have always featured Tsunami decoders. The newer Spectrum locos that utilize the Sound Module are also a full Tsunami when you complete the decoder with the Sound Module. Bachmann only uses the “Sound Value” boards in their standard line locos.